Don't Use a Blockchain Unless You Really Need One

Source-http://bit.ly/2r5yh7J via @CoinDesk

Last month I had the plum assignment of interviewing Naval Ravikant for CoinDesk's Most Influential in Blockchain 2017 series. During our conversation, the AngelList co-founder shared an insight that I just couldn't fit into the profile, but it was pretty mind-blowing, so I'm going to lay it on you here.

Stepping back, for the last few years I've watched the cryptocurrency community's efforts to disrupt finance and, in parallel, the self-sovereign identity movement's attempt to decentralize control of personal data.

By studying the former, I've learned the importance of censorship-resistance – the inability of a third party to veto a transaction between peers. From the latter I've become familiar with the concept of data portability: the notion that consumers should be able to easily and securely transfer their records from one service to another – be it a bank, a doctor's office or a social media platform – the way they can port their mobile number when they get a new phone.

What Ravikant helped me to grok is that these two ideas are tightly related – and so the fact that both digital currency and digital identity projects are employing distributed ledgers is more than coincidence or fashion.

Because you don't use a blockchain unless you really need it.